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I don't know about this fine, but the vast majority of bank fines are usually "consumer relief." Banks usually are in a position to where the actual financial impact of the fine is a very small fraction of the headline number.

"Goldman Sachs buys a home loan at 50 percent off. It then modifies the mortgage for the borrower to perhaps 60 percent of face value. The modification gets referred to the overseer of the mortgage settlement, proving that Goldman did lower the cost for the homeowner. And as homeowners begin to make modified payments, the bank can resell the now-performing loans, or just take in the revenue stream. If this works, Goldman makes at least a 10 percent profit on the deal, while satisfying the consumer relief terms of the settlement."[1]

The above glosses over the notion of it working by saying "if it works," but for the most part, it does.

[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/goldman-sachs-wins-lose-mortg...

Good reference, too:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/business/dealbook/mortgag...




That's interesting. Thanks for the resources. I wasn't aware of this.




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